"Vive le vent ... Vive le vent ..."

When these words are sung by children in the winter (to the tune of "Jingle Bells") they evoke a spirit of a snowy wonderland. When Philipp exclaims "wind!", he always follows with "kite surf!" (one of his favorite activities).

But France was not joyful last night, as another major wind storm blew across the country. The French people were fearful of the damage that would occur, only weeks after a major wind storm that ravaged the southwest of the country.

Unlike areas of the United States, France does not get hit with many tornadoes or hurricanes. But from time to time, there are incredible wind storms that bring hurricane-force winds. One hit in 1999 near Paris, and uprooted many of the treasured trees in the garden of Versailles. The storm that caused so much damage on the 24th of January also brought down a tree at Versailles that had survived the 1999 wind storm -- and had been standing since the 18th century!

Yesterday's storm put 58 departments (each equivalent to an American county in size) on high alert for wind damage. All day, we had heavy rains and wind, the latter really picking up in the evening. The wind reached speeds of 65-80 mph, with gusts over 100 mph. This morning, approximately 600,000 households are without electricity.

Luckily for us, we only have some broken branches to deal with, and our power never went out. Philipp just called from the castle, and all the trees are standing (we lost a big one in 2006), although a large branch (5 yards long) fell, nearly hitting someone's car.

I don't have pictures to share about the storm, but if you want, follow this link to a video I found about the January 24th storm. It's about 4 minutes long ... maybe a bit melodramatic (the music and mention of it being apocalyptic) but you get an idea of the damage.